Pteridomania: a Visual History of the Fern in New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis presents an investigation of the fern motif as icon and cultural artefact. Focusing on the period stretching from the early years of colonialism to the early twentieth century, it traces a visual history of the motif, examining how it has formed historically, how its meanings have changed and how it continues to signify in the cultural landscapes of contemporary society. Scientific, aesthetic and cultural concerns have informed and conditioned the construction and development of the fern motif. Its formation has been inextricably interlinked with the political manoeuvring of imperialism's scientific networks. Romantic artistic frameworks have worked to aestheticise the motif, leading to its commodification for popular aesthetic/scientific consumption. New technological advancements have disseminated the fern's cultural productions, allowing 'fern knowledge' to saturate popular culture and leading to its ultimate configuration in the processes of imagining national collectivity. As an instrument of self-definition, it has been used by both European and Maori cultural groups. This thesis reveals the fern icon to be an uneasy, complex and contested site, its historical formation operating in tandem with the mythologising processes of colonialism. Freed from its function as a marker of self and place, the fern has fascinated artists and continues to do so; a pre-human quality, an element of secrecy and the sheer strangeness of its fractal patterning eliciting a sense of wonder at the natural world.